Joan Morgan UnPlugs with Hillary

from Vibe.com

Hillary Clinton Talks Chances for Clinton/Obama Dream Ticket
by Joan Morgan

Last weekend, author and broadcaster Tavis Smiley invited all four leading presidential candidates to New Orleans along with venerated members of the black cultural and political elite -Rev. Al Sharpton, Dr. Cornel West, Donna Brazille, and Representative Sheila Jackson Lee among them-to address the annual State of the Black Union Symposium.

That the Republican candidates Governor Mike Huckabee and Senator John McCain did not attend came as no surprise. More unexpected was the fact that Senator Obama, locked in a dead heat for the pivotal March 4 Texas and Ohio primaries, declined Smiley's invitation, offering to send his wife, Michelle instead. Smiley publicly criticized the Senator's decision and was lambasted by black folk across the country who derided Smiley for shortsightedness and egotism. Smiley, who's usually on the sunny side of black popular opinion, reported that members of his family experienced harassment and even death threats. Such is the intensity of Obama-mania at this stage of the campaign.

Sen. Clinton, who has watched her lead in money, delegates, and polls dwindle with alarming rapidity as Obama racked up 11 consecutive primary victories-and whose presidential hopes hang precariously on her ability to secure victories in Texas and Ohio-was there. "More than Obama, Senator Clinton needs to address this crowd," said Rev. Sharpton, "to explain some of the race-tinged language we've heard from people in her campaign that has polluted and polarized this race."

Considering the conflama, the Morial Convention Center was a fitting location. Fresh coats of paint and pretty words are not enough to exorcise the heartbreaking history of Hurricane Katrina or the uneasy spirits left in her wake. The sanitized stench of betrayal, broken promises, and ceaseless finger-pointing are a palpable part of the history of this venue. It is not an easy place to fake the funk.

Greeted by a standing ovation, the embattled Senator from New York took the stage and offered these poignant words:

"This campaign has taken all of us into uncharted territory as a party, as a nation, and as individuals. And yes, I think we can be both proud and grateful that we are breaking barriers and changing history for the good. But uncharted territory means the way forward isn't always easy. The high stakes and historic nature of Senator Obama's candidacy and mine have vested this campaign with an intensity and an excitement seldom seen in the political arena. And, as often happens, there have been some painful moments, too. Those of us who have fought together for decades, to right wrongs and break barriers, cannot allow differences in our choice of who should be elected to undermine our fundamental unity and determination to change the course of this country starting in November [applause] because we represent precious opportunity and urgent responsibility for our wounded nation."

After her address, and a question and answer session with Smiley that was broadcast live on C-Span, Sen. Clinton and I sat down for this exclusive interview. What followed wasn't only a frank admission of her weaknesses, but also a reiteration of her unique strengths.

Read the Full Essay @ Vibe.com

NBM BookNotes: Racial Paranoia

Racial Paranoia: The Unintended Consequences of Political Correctness by John L. Jackson, Jr.

The Civil War outlawed slavery, and the civil rights movement put an end to legalized segregation. Crimes motivated by racism are now punished with particular severity, and Americans are more sensitive than ever when it comes to the words they use to talk about other races and ethnic groups. Yet the country remains divided along racial lines.

This controversial book identifies a new paradigm of race relations that has emerged in the wake of the legal victories of the civil rights era: racial paranoia.

African-Americans distrust the rhetoric of political correctness, and continue to see the threat of hidden racism lurking below the surface of America's public conversations. Conspiracy theories abound and racial reconciliation seems nearly impossible.

Racial Paranoia: The Unintended Consequences of Political Correctness explains how this skepticism is cultivated, transferred, and reinforced; how it shapes our nation and complicates the goal of racial equality.

Racial paranoia isn’t just about people being hyper-sensitive, and it is hardly the same thing as old-fashioned racism. The nuances of those differences are at the center of current debates about the very possibility of democracy in a multiracial American society on the verge, potentially, of its first African-American President.


ADVANCE PRAISE FOR RACIAL PARANOIA

“For those who are repeatedly wounded by racism, the prophylactic defense of 'paranoia' may be every bit as involuntary as it is practical. In his insightful new book, John L. Jackson Jr. renders a rigorous and fresh examination of the new axis of race relations in America."
--Randall Robinson, author of The Debt and An Unbroken Agony: Haiti From Revolution to the Kidnapping of a President

"Brutally honest and brilliantly original, Racial Paranoia diagnoses an urgent problem: the suspicion and the reality of racism on the down-low. John Jackson takes us on a stunning whirlwind tour through a landscape peopled by everyone from Frederick Douglass to Dave Chappelle. The picture that emerges is of a new reality where race is everywhere and nowhere, seen and unseen, felt and ignored. Jackson's insight into what he calls the de cardio racism inscribed on American hearts is destined to make this book a classic."
--Noah Feldman, Professor of Law, Harvard University, author of Fall and Rise of the Islamic State

"By listening to conversations about race and studying its endless iterations in popular culture, John L. Jackson, Jr., arrives at a nuanced and utterly convincing reading of how, when we talk about race, we pretend to talk about everything but race, and of how all of us learn to understand what's being said. This important new book will help us decipher and make sense of our national conversation about race."
–Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor, Harvard University

"Having an honest conversations about race is as daunting as it was a century ago when W.E.B. DuBois acknowledged the color-line as the defining reality of American culture. Never one to be discouraged by such challenges, John L. Jackson, Jr., once again puts conventional wisdom on its head with a smart, imaginative and humorous conversation about race in contemporary America. With the publication Racial Paranoia: The Unintended Consequences of Political Correctness, I suspect Jackson will become everybody’s favorite public intellectual."
—Mark Anthony Neal, author of New Black Man

John L. Jackson, Jr. is the Richard Perry University Associate Professor of Communication and Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania.

Rap Sessions Re-Ups

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NATIONAL TOWNHALL MEETINGS TO EXPLORE THE HIP-HOP GENERATION'S STAKE IN THE 2008 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION


February 18, 2008 (New York, NY)—Rap Sessions: Community Dialogues on Hip-Hop announces a national tour focused on hip-hop, youth civic participation and the 2008 Presidential Campaign.

Rap Sessions presents its third annual national discussion tour, which unites a diverse panel of leading hip-hop activists, artists and youth politics experts to engage youth and community leaders in candid, compelling conversations about ways hip-hop generation voters can organize to have an impact on this year's election.

Targeting the hip-hop generation and their younger millennial siblings, these dynamic and provocative discussions are designed to inform young voters on the candidates, the issues, and prepare them to participate fully in the upcoming election.

"The 2008 Presidential Election is the most important election of this generation's lifetime," notes Bakari Kitwana, the Executive Director of Rap Sessions and the author of The Hip-Hop Generation. "The goal of these gatherings is to educate youth on their civic rights and responsibilities, and, equally important, to help young voters understand ways to place their issues on the national agenda."

Reflecting on the record young voter turnout in caucuses and primaries in Iowa, New Hampshire and across the United States, as well as groundbreaking turn-outs in 2004, Kitwana added: "The hip-hop voting bloc will be a defining factor in 2008. We want to be sure that our young people are informed on exactly what's at stake for the hip-hop generation and not be lulled to sleep by the hype of gender, race or simply voting for voting's sake."

Beginning in March, Rap Sessions' interactive community dialogues will convene in ten cities across the United States.

• Jeff Johnson, BET's Cousin Jeff Chronicles, director of Truth is Power and author of Let's Get Free: Strategies for Organizing the Hip-Hop Voting Bloc;

• hip-hop political organizer Angela Woodson, co-chair of the 2004 National Hip-Hop Political Convention and director of Faith-based Initiatives for the Ohio Governor's Office;

• hip-hop artist M-1, one half off the innovative hip-hop duo dead prez;

• public policy analyst Dr. Maya Rockeymoore, author of A Political Action Handbook for the Hip-Hop Generation and the former chief of staff for Congressman Charlie Rangel;

• Billy Wimsatt, co-founder of the League of Young Voters and author of How to Get Stupid White Men Out of Office;

•hip-hop activist Rosa Clemente, The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Black August and The Hip-Hop Caucus.

Bakari Kitwana, the moderator of these discussions, is co-founder of the first ever National Hip-Hop Political Convention and the former editor of The Source. His bookThe Hip-Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the Crisis in African American Culture has been adopted as a coursebook at over 100 colleges and universities across the country. A consultant for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Kitwana has been acknowledged as an expert on youth culture and hip-hop politics by CNN, Fox News, CNBC, BET and other leading news outlets. His writings have appeared in the Village Voice, The New York Times, The Nation, Savoy and the Boston Globe. Currently Artist-in-Residence at the Center for the Study of Race Politics and Culture at the University of Chicago, he teaches a course in the political science department entitled, "The Politics of The Hip-Hop Generation." Why White Kids Love Hip-Hop: New Realities of Race in America is his most recent book.

For more information about Rap Sessions, log onto: www.rapsessions.org

Press Contact: Mona Finston, Mona Finston PR, 212-724-6117, email mfinstonpr@earthlink.net.

March
11th; Boston, MA
12th; Fairfield, CT
25th; Bethlehem, PA

April
3rd ; San Francisco, CA
5th; Chicago, IL
8th; San Luis Obispo, CA
9th; Los Angeles, CA
18th; Milwaukee, WI
19th; Madison, WI
29th; Marquette, MI

Opening Barkley: The Birth of Cool

from CRITICAL NOIR @ Vibe.com

Critical Noir: Opening Barkley
by Mark Anthony Neal

Birth of Cool, a retrospective exhibition on the life and work of artist Barkley L. Hendricks recently opened at the Nasher Museum of Art in Durham, North Carolina. Conceived by Trevor Schoonmaker, the Curator of Contemporary Art at the Nasher Museum and Richard J. Powell, the John Spencer Bassett Professor of Art and Art History at Duke University, Birth of Cool is the first such retrospective of the Philadelphia native's work. According to Powell, the foremost scholar of Hendricks's work, the idea of a Hendricks retrospective was "beguiling, with the idea to encounter old friends, audacious strangers, and engrossing paintings, it seems, for the very first time." The exhibition's opening night was reflective of Powell's observations bringing together an eclectic group of people for a discussion between Hendricks and Powell, which was followed by an after-party that featured Grammy-award winning producer and DJ 9th Wonder.

Trained at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Arts and Yale University, Hendricks emerges in the late 1960s just as "Black Power" became synonymous with black vernacular culture via the agitprop of Black Arts Movement figures like Amiri Baraka and Larry Neal. Hendricks was primarily interested in figurative and life sized portraiture, thus his subjects, more often than not, were simply the bodies of everyday black folk. Hendricks's aesthetic commitment to the "folk" likely helped keep him beyond the radar of the mainstream art world. As Franklin Sirmans, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Mencil Collection in Houston, "these are black people who are rarely glimpsed outside their community (not art galleries), but within these communities they can easily be seen just as easily as symbols of vibrant everyday life." As such, over the past few decades, Hendricks has helped establish black bodies as sites vernacular culture--his influence seen in the work of younger artists such as Kehinde Wiley and even Iona Rozeal Brown.

Read Full Essay at CRITICAL NOIR @ Vibe.com

Is John McCain an Option? Two Views

If Limbaugh can register a protest vote for Hillary, why can't we look at the GOP?

Why Blacks Should Consider McCain
By William Jelani Cobb/TheRoot.com

The Clintons have thus far run one of the most underhanded and bitter political campaigns in recent history. And while there is no reason to suspect that they are racist, they are clearly willing to play upon the sympathies of whites who are--which is probably worse. This was evident by the twin "accidents" in which Clinton staff member Billy Shaheen and that pillar of the booty-shake community BET founder Bob Johnson attacked Sen. Obama for his youthful dalliances with drugs. Any lingering doubt about who they were playing to was erased when Bill Clinton essentially dismissed Obama's South Carolina victory by comparing it to Jesse Jackson's wins there in 1984 and 1988.

Apparently none of the high-profile black leaders who are backing Hillary Clinton have been able to prohibit the kind of cynical race hustling that marked the South Carolina primary. (This recalls the old saying that the problem is not that black leaders so often sell out, but that their asking price is so pitifully low.)

But in the wake of the Sister Souljah episode (not to mention Bill Clinton's stiff-arming of his black nominee for the Justice Department (Lani Guinier) and his short-lived Surgeon General (Jocelyn Elders) it must appear that there is nothing the black community won't forgive you for provided you show up at one of our churches and hum a spiritual every so often. As a matter of principle, no candidate, no matter how deep their alleged ties to the black community, should be allowed to race-bait a black politician and still receive the majority of our vote.

All this points to one clear – if unlikely – conclusion: if Hillary Clinton receives the Democratic Party nomination, African Americans should consider voting for John McCain. But before you fix your lips to call me a sellout consider this: Carter G. Woodson once remarked that any race that consistently gives its vote to one political party is asking to be taken advantage of.

Read the Full Essay

***

We don't have the luxury of a protest vote.

The McCain Option? Pul-eeze.
By Jack White /TheRoot.com

Feb. 8, 2008.

Memo to William Jelani Cobb.

Re: Your proposal that "if Hillary Clinton receives the Democratic Party nomination, African Americans should consider voting for John McCain."

Knee-grow, pul-eeeze!

Your column on The Root ranks as the most ridiculous political idea any Negro has put forth my since my brother-in-law decided to support Clarence Thomas on the grounds that, after all, he's a brother. So ridiculous, Dr. Cobb, that at first, I thought you were kidding… and I still hope that you were. But on the odd chance that you were serious—or that some people let themselves be swayed by your cockamamie idea—I thought I'd better inject some common sense back into the discussion.

The last thing black people need is to take your advice to emulate right-wing extremists like Anne Coulter, who claims she hates McCain so much she'd rather vote for Clinton. Even thinking about following that course is a self-destructive diversion. We've already wasted enough time this year on a Negrofied version of the medieval debate over how many angels can dance on the head of a pin: how many of us can buck-and-wing on the bi-racial chromosomes of Barack Obama? Now that we've finally got that settled and have thrown in behind the brother, there is absolutely no rationale for unearthing the age-old questions about our relationship with the Democratic Party. Way too much is at stake.

Read the Full Essay

That Ol' Black Magic

Earl Monroe & Al Attles Speak At "Black Magic" World Premiere

Basketball Legends And Co-Producers Participate In Panel Discussion At Documentary Screening

(Durham, North Carolina) — Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, has announced that Earl Monroe and Al Attles will participate in the panel discussion following the world premiere of the theatrical cut of "Black Magic". The premiere will be held Monday, Feb. 11 at 7:30 p.m. at the Carolina Theatre, located at 309 W. Morgan St. in Durham.

Attles and Monroe, prominent North Carolina basketball legends, are also two of the most influential black figures in the history of the sport. After graduating from North Carolina A&T State University, Attles became one of the first black NBA coaches in 1979 and persevered to become the second to win a NBA title. Monroe, a Winston-Salem State University graduate, was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History after an astounding 13-year career. Dan Klores, director of "Black Magic" and the 2007 critically acclaimed film festival hit "Crazy Love", will join Attles and Monroe on the panel to discuss the history that inspired the film. "Black Magic" tells the story of the injustice that defined the Civil Rights Movement in America, through the lives of basketball players and coaches who attended historically black colleges and universities.

Individual tickets for the "Black Magic" World Premiere and panel discussion are $12 and may be purchased at the event or by visiting the Box Office at www.fullframefest.org. Tickets for both the pre-screening party and film are available to Full Frame members for $35 and $50 for non-members.

Related Links:
www.fullframefest.org

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www.mmimarketing.com

Yes We Can; Yes We Did

from NewsOne

Yes We Can--Yes We Did
by Mark Anthony Neal

***

Though not usually given to emotional outbursts, I was confused as I found myself tearing-up while watching “Yes, We Can.” I was caught even more off-guard as my daughter asked me why I was crying.

Although I make my living by “having an answer for everything” I was quite frankly at a loss for words. But then I imagined the world that my 72-year-old father lived in when he was 9-years-old, knowing at the time that there was little chance that he could ever vote, let alone vote for somebody who looked like him.

I was only a little older than my daughter is now when my father did cast his first ballot in 1976 for Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter.

I could also remember the first time I pulled the lever — voting for Reverend Jesse Jackson in the New York Democratic convention in 1984 and how good so many of us felt — giving each other sly winks—as we walked in and out of the voting site, knowing full well that our vote in that primary was little more than a symbolic gesture of pride.

As I struggled for language to give my daughter, I realized also that for her and many of her peers, Barack Obama’s campaign is nothing extraordinary (she has made more of the fact that a “girl” has never been president).

And while there will be many difficult conversations in the future between us about the disenfranchisement of convicted felons, Diebold machines and voting irregularities, it is this sense of normalcy that I guess ultimately triggered my emotions in response to the “Yes We Can” video. It’s a normalcy that my father could never imagine — a normalcy that as a teenager I had long learned not to ever expect.

Obama’s 13 victories on Super Tuesday gets him no closer to his party’s nomination and thus no closer to the presidency, but as I again watch “Yes, We Can” and again tears well-up in the eyes, I can swear that what I am really hearing are generations of folk who came before us whispering “Yes, you did.”

Read the Full Essay

Tashan - Black Man

Great Memories from my "CultNat" days in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Yes We Can - Barack Obama Music Video

Pragmatist that I am, I teared up a bit watching this for the first time with my 9-year-old daughter. At 9-years old, my father could never imagine a moment like this, and even as the "Young Gifted and Black" generation watched Chisholm's run in '72 or watched Jesse's convention speech in '84, this is still a moment to behold.

Chattin' It Up: The Life & Times of Jimmy Early

from the Independent Weekly (Durham)

Mark Anthony Neal, a professor at Duke University, has written extensively on African-American music and culture, including What the Music Said: Black Popular Music and Black Public Culture and New Black Man: Rethinking Black Masculinity. Here, he will examine the character of James "Thunder" Early from the musical and film Dreamgirls. Thunder was the successful singer who took on the Dreamgirls as his backup vocalists, but he was soon overtaken by their celebrity. He appeared to be based on big figures in soul music of the time, like James Brown, but there are nuances that point to him as both a tragic figure and hero of immense proportions in any realm. Neal will explore Early's life and legacy in this talk, "The Life and Times of James 'Thunder' Early: A Meditation of Soul and the Chitlin Circuit." The free event, which is part of Duke Performances' Soul Power series, starts at 7 p.m. —Chris Toenes

Tuesday, 2/5/08, 7 pm
Auditorium at the Center for Documentary Studies
Duke University
1317 W Pettigrew St
East Campus, Durham, 660-3663